Interview with Kylie Thompson, Author of Aromatherapy for the Emotions (part 2)
<< Back to Part 1 of the Interview
WLNH: What do you think are the biggest misconceptions about aromatherapy?
Kylie: There are still people out there who think ‘aromatherapy’ is a bit bogus, ‘A load of crap’ I have heard from some people, like it’s a therapy where you have to ‘believe’ that it will work for it to work (and there are a lot of therapies out there that you have to believe in). But I just put that down to ignorance and I’m not about to try and change people’s minds if they have that mindset.
I know aromatherapy is a serious therapy; it’s directly derived from Herbalism which was our first form of medicines, and from which most of our medicines today were derived from. You don’t need faith with aromatherapy oils-just like traditional medicines they are made up of chemical compounds that when introduced into a person’s blood stream have the ability to fight pathogens, or when inhaled those compounds affect the brain and set off hormonal reactions in the brain and nervous system to bring about change and healing.
I think that’s pretty much what traditional medicines do, except modern antibiotics kill all microorganisms, including the beneficial ones that we need to maintain our health, causing other problems once the initial illness has been treated. Aromatherapy treats the whole person in a gentle way, and cares for both physical health and psychological health. Of course, all of us who know aromatherapy well already know all this
How have you seen people’s attitudes toward aromatherapy evolve, and what do you see for the future of this field?
Kylie: A direct example of how I have seen people’s attitude’s about aromatherapy evolve would be the range and selections of essential oil products available for purchase. Earlier when I spoke of the little box in the Health food shop, well that company was Sunspirit (Australian range). Now if you go into a chemist or health food shop to buy Sunspirit oils, the stand of products is probably over a meter high and chock full of oils and blends. From this example you can see that obviously there is a big demand for aromatherapy products, otherwise the range wouldn’t have grown from a wooden box of 15-20 oils into a stand almost the height of a person!
You can see that people’s attitudes in general have changed as far as their health and well being are concerned with the alternative health therapies and information about them becoming more available. I think people in general are more educated and are taking preventative measures as far as their health is concerned instead of waiting to get ill and give the power over their health to Doctors.
Article:
Aromatherapy for Emotional Health >>
Article: Guide to Aromatherapy Research >>
Article: Aromatherapy for Stress and Insomnia >>
Another example of aromatherapy’s evolution is the ranges of aromatherapy products designed to balance the Chakra system-the body’s energy system. People now understand that they need to treat the whole-not just the part of ourselves that is ill. I think as far as the future is concerned we will see a lot more people become savvy in ‘simple aromatherapy’ which is the correct term for how most people use aromatherapy in their everyday lives-vaporization, massage, cosmetics, bathing and steam inhalations.
As our lives have become more stressful due to modern pressures and a lack of personal leisure time due to work and family commitments, people are seeking alternative treatments to cope with the stressors of everyday life, and using aromatherapy to treat stress is as simple as dropping a few oils into some water in an oil burner-there is no work involved, you don’t have to go anywhere or pay a lot of money. The aroma does the work and brings about the relief and change. A bottle of lavender oil in the home may be as common as toothpaste, a necessity. Just by reducing stress levels, a whole list of diseases and conditions can be arrested as stress is at the heart of half to two thirds of most illnesses. Aromatherapy has the potential to be a major contributor to eliminating these illnesses just from reducing stress levels alone.
What are some of the areas of aromatherapy that you feel deserve more attention?
Kylie: I might get a lot of flack for saying this, but there is a major part of aromatherapy that has been totally ignored, and that is the oral application of essential oils. Now I have a long winded defense for that statement, and here goes; First of all when we use aromatherapy in our lives, we are ingesting those oils. The oil’s molecules enter the bloodstream and are circulated throughout our bodies through application of the oils on the skin or through inhalation. Then they are excreted out of our systems via the usual methods, respiration, perspiration, urination-you get the picture? Now the combination of using aromatherapy with massage has several benefits, you are increasing circulation and relaxing, you are experiencing the oils immediate psychological effect by smelling the aroma, and you are receiving the oils’ physiological effects through the absorption of the oil through the skin into the blood stream. But how often can we treat ourselves to a massage? We have to fit it into our busy schedules, or we have to be in a financial position to experience this modality of aromatherapy on a regular basis. We can of course, self-massage but like most people who have good intentions it often gets pushed aside due to the never-ending list of tasks we have to perform in life, plus self massage just isn’t as fun as having someone else do it for you. If you are lucky, you may have a partner who is happy to massage you on a regular basis, but chances are they are just as tired or busy and could do with a massage themselves, or we may not have a partner. We can have the vaporizer burning in our homes to experience the benefits of aromatherapy, and that’s ok for people who are home a lot. But again, most of us as working or running about driving the kids to activities etc. We may be lucky to work in an environment that allows us to have a vaporizer, and we may be lucky that our co-workers don’t mind that we have the oils vaporizing.
But people are individuals and you may burn an oil that is offensive to someone due to past experiences, or it just physically doesn’t agree with them and causes nausea or a headache. Or we could be working in an environment that is impossible to have an oil burner on hand, like a building site or mine site. Of course we can come home from work and have a lovely aromatic bath, but what if you live in a home that doesn’t have a bath? Pouring oils down the shower drain is just a waste of oils, and you may briefly get the psychological benefit from the scent of the oil, but you are not experiencing the physiological effects through the absorption of the oil through the skin. This is where I think the oral use of essential oils can prove to be useful.
Article:
Why You Need to Know Botanical Names >>
Article: Essential Oil Safety Guidelines >>
Article: Tips for Purchasing Essential Oils >>
I don’t know exactly why this aspect of aromatherapy has been left behind. I have several theories being; people as consumers drive what information is disclosed in the form of books-one thing I know about writing a book is that you have to take several things into consideration that being the target audience and whether there is a need for that information. There’s no point writing a book that no one will read because no one is interested in the subject. But if that information is not available in the first place and people have no knowledge that it exists, they do not seek a true aromatherapist that can provide this modality of aromatherapy and they don’t demand information on the subject.
Another theory is that most of the books published on aromatherapy are written by people (like me) who are not true Aromatherapists. A true Aromatherapist is a health care professional and is knowledgeable in prescribing essential oils for oral application. Robert Tisserand is an example of such a professional and he does advise and suggest throughout his books oral doses of essential oils for illnesses. People like myself who are writing about aromatherapy are not going to recommend oral doses because 1. They don’t have the knowledge and 2. They don’t want to give advice based on misinformation and cause someone to become ill due to their ill informed advice 3. Even if they have the information, they are going to get lynched for disclosing or suggesting it.
Even though aromatherapy has dramatically grown in popularity in the last 10 years, the majority of people still don’t have a basic understanding of it, and like most alternative therapies, it can be considered a charlatan by some people. There are on the other hand a growing number of people wanting information on aromatherapy and maybe wanting to be a practitioner. So educational facilities cater to this demand, with basic courses in aromatherapy, but misleading the students as to their actual qualifications at the end of the course, so we have a lot of people with certificates like mine going about calling themselves aromatherapists and providing aromatherapy treatments based on what I call “Simple Aromatherapy’, which is the knowledge that we are all capable of obtaining through the various texts written on the subject, without having to pay for a course for the same knowledge. But this knowledge in both the books and the courses does not address the oral applications because to actually be qualified to prescribe essential oils orally as a practitioner takes years of study-just like any other professional medical and health practitioner. We actually have a real lack of people educated as true aromatherapists, so this aspect of aromatherapy has literally disappeared.
As mentioned before earlier in the answer, we do ingest essential oils with the current methods of applications we currently use, but if you mention taking essential oils internally via oral application, people jump up and down and treat it as a taboo subject and tell you that you had better not mention it or you’ll get sued. What I don’t understand though is that we can write about brewing up a cup of chamomile tea to treat say-insomnia or peppermint for indigestion, but we can’t mention putting a few drops of oil into a liter of water and taking so many ml’s so many times a day to treat the same condition. The oil is obtained from the same plant, and infusing the dried plant into hot water is achieving the same or similar result, it’s releasing the chemical compounds found in the plant into the water which we then ingest for the health benefit it provides. The oil just happens to be a more concentrated form than the plant material, but common sense tells us if it’s more concentrated, we don’t need to use as much.
Aromatherapy was directly derived from Herbalism, and Herbalism itself is also another therapy that requires years of formal study in order to practice, but no one has a second thought in suggesting we self-treat orally with herbal teas or supplements. Here’s where the problem may be as far as recommending oral dosages of oils are concerned-people often think that if a little is good for me, then a lot more would be even better. But people can do that with a lot of treatments and products, an example is vitamin or herbal supplements. It may be considered natural and the word natural conjures up the thought of ‘safe’ but anything taken in excess can be harmful-food is another example. Large amounts of oils have to be ingested for there to be a detrimental effect, but because we have no real knowledge about the subject and everyone is scared of mentioning it, we decide its best to be cautious and disregard the oral options, and as a result a valuable side of aromatherapy has almost disappeared.
WLNH: What are some of your favorite essential oils, and how do you like to use them?
Kylie: My favorite oils are; lavender, rose, neroli, ylang ylang, geranium, rosewood, sandalwood, cedarwood, patchouli, petitgrain, lime, lemongrass, clary sage, black pepper, basil, coriander and tea tree. I do like and use a lot more, but if really pressed for the oils I couldn’t live without, they would be it. I mainly use the oils in the bath for various reasons; immune system boosting or treating health conditions; for relaxation and stress relief and to ensure a good night’s sleep; for sensual effects-bathing and vaporizer and if I’m feeling generous, massaging my partner, vaporization-I have oils burning everyday, all day and all night. I burn a lot of tea tree and eucalyptus during the day to purify the air and kill pathogens floating about. At night I choose a blend of oils to calm and relax my children before bed. I use a blend of oils in a base of wheat germ oil and carrot oil as a moisturizer (palma rosa, lavender and geranium.)
I also use the oils for emotional conditions, to soothe whatever state I find myself in. Ylang Ylang seems to have the most direct effect in calming and soothing me, for some people that oil may be lavender and ylang ylang may just give them a headache. This is why an individual’s personality should be taken into consideration when selecting oils to treat emotional states. I thought this was an important factor and wrote a section on personality profiles and the oils in my book to help people understand this concept and enhance their aromatherapy treatments because they have the right oils for them as an individual to work with. One of my favorite blends is 3 drops ylang ylang, 3 drops geranium and 3 drops black pepper for the oil burner or bath, or add the same amount to 20mls carrier oil for a massage.
WLNH: Please tell us a little about the book you are currently working on, and any other future projects.
Kylie: The book I am working on at the moment is such a mixed bag that I am actually having trouble finding a title for it that will actually convey in a few words what the actual book is about. I wanted to write about aromatherapy’s progression through history and the myths associated with the plants essential oils are derived from, which formed the religion and culture of ancient societies. Those associations have still survived today and we see a resurgence of earth-based religions using herbs and essential oils for their magickal purposes. I want to call it ‘An Aromatherapy Grimoire’ which is sort of like a Book of Shadows, a written record of magickal information. But I think that title may be misleading or off-putting, because the book itself is much more than a book about magick.
It’s definitely a large part of it, and I am seeing (in Australia) that people are using oils to enhance their spirituality and attune to the divine (an example is the Goddessessence range of essential oil blends). What fascinates me about this aspect of aromatherapy is the fact that product ranges are being developed from this aspect, but there is little information available so you just have to trust the manufacturer’s words and recommendations and buy their products with good faith that they are correct. But, as a person, I just don’t accept this and I need to know for myself.
This is partly a reason why in ‘Aromatherapy for the Emotions’ I wrote about the use of aromatherapy to balance the chakras. I had exactly the same motivation-onto the marketplace all of the sudden several ranges of chakra essential oil blends arose. But, I noticed that each range mentioned different oils for each chakra, and there was a lot of conflict, one range for example may have lavender in their root chakra blend, but another company may have it in their heart chakra blend. I wanted to know as a consumer what was correct, but I couldn’t find any reliable information and the information I did find from several sources was also in conflict. No one really knows for sure. I did notice however whilst researching this part of the book, that after correlating all the different information, I could see a pattern emerging, and that was that most suggested oils recommended for each chakra seemed to climb up the perfume note scale, so from this information I concluded that the true chakra oils can be identified according to their perfume note.
I am also wanting to write a book on the less common and rare essential oils. The oils we have available to us as consumers have been decided to be marketed at us from a company, and so our use of essential oils is determined by what is readily available to us. But different countries I have noticed tend to use different oils, like I have never seen jonquil, carnation, gardenia, immortelle, ravensara and many others in Australia and I have no idea what to do with them. The wholesaler I buy my oils from has oils like anjowan, aniseed, Buddha leaf and cabrueva as examples, and again I have no idea what they are for, so I have never purchased any of them. But I could be missing out on a valuable oil all because I don’t have any information available to me. This information does exist, but because these oils are not as popular, well known or chosen to be marketed by essential oil companies it is not written about or readily available. I am sure that there are many others like me that just want to know what those oils do, so this is my motivation to write a book on that subject.
I also want to write a book about skin care, not just for the outside, but from the inside as well. It will have aromatherapy oils suggested for various skin conditions, but also food suggestions and supplements.
WLNH: What are some of your other hobbies and interests?
Kylie: Food and nutrition is one of my interests, as well as cooking and eating. I like gardening, and I am particularly fond of roses-one garden I planted 60 varieties which was really nice to look at but very hard when it came to pruning time. I also had a selection of heritage roses, but they only flower usually once a year so I’m not sure if I had to plant a rose garden again that I would include them. I also like growing anything that has both an aesthetic appeal and a practical use, like herbs, fruiting trees and vines and vegetables. I started growing heirloom vegetables a few years ago and just love them; they are both visually appealing and delicious. Plus you are preserving a variety that has almost disappeared due to commercialism-if it doesn’t transport well or have a shelf life of fifty-million days (exaggeration) then its just not available to you as a consumer, so these species just disappear, and once they are gone they are gone for good! This is why we have awful, tasteless tomatoes with the texture of a brick in our supermarkets.
I like yoga, and always have good intentions of establishing a daily practice, but keep falling down on that. I also like to sew and knit clothing, but that has also been put on the sidelines-I have four children and my partner works away from home for weeks at a time so I rarely seem to find an opportunity to do something I enjoy that involves full concentration, and sewing and knitting requires that. At one point I sewed all my own clothes and my children’s, but that was a time that I had two children and not four, and a partner at home to help. I am interested in crystals, I have always been attracted to them as much as the aromatic plants and oils. I also enjoy reading anything to do with health and wellbeing, and also most subjects of a metaphysical nature or subjects concerning religion. I don’t have a particular religious belief system myself, but I like to read about what’s available.
Kylie Thompson is a 32 year old mother of four children, an Australian Citizen and a Beauty Therapist by trade, with additional certificates in Aromatherapy, Acrylic nails and Make-up artistry. She is the author of ‘Aromatherapy for the Emotions’ published by Lulu Press. Kylie has 12 years experience within the beauty industry, and is a former salon owner/operator. Kylie has also completed the first year of university study of a Bachelor of Education, majoring in Home Economics and minoring in Health Education. She currently lives in the beautiful Western Australian Chittering Valley amongst unspoiled natural bush land and native fauna. "Aromatherapy for the Emotions' is Kylie's first written text. Kylie’s web site is Aromaticamedica Her book can be purchased from Lulu Press. |
